arrowsartsandbooks's reviews
451 reviews

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book was amazing, but hard to read. It took me a while to read because of how heavy the subject matter and the main themes of racism, grooming, and sexuality were. This book is about a Latina girl who reads a book and falls in love with it. She reaches out to the author and to her surprise, he responds to her and they form a personal connection. During this time, she is still in school, and he is much older with a steady career ahead of him, which led to a huge power imbalance. She gets groomed by him and eventually tells her story to a reporter which is told through a dual timeline. All of Tatum's relationships in this book are so messy. I loved the bisexual representation in this book. If you liked My Dark Vanessa, you'll like this book too because of the similar themes. I can't believe this is a debut, it's so well written and such a heartbreaking story that too many woman experience.

4.5 Stars
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Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang

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challenging emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is about a girl, named Valentina, who believes her family has a generational curse that makes it so none of the family members, including herself, will be able to experience love without extreme loss and heartbreak. She makes a deal with the spirit of St. Valentine that if she can't find true love within a year, she'll give him her heart, that way she'll never experience love or heartbreak. The characters in this book were lovable. The art style was amazing. I loved how the illustrator used drastic color difference from scene to scene to set the mood of each scene. The way St. Valentine was drawn was haunting and creepy. This book explores cultural identity, specifically Korean, Vietnamese, and Chinese Americans. It explores the traditions and activities in the cultures and how it can bring family, friends, and community together.
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Under the Surface by Diana Urban

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

Ever since I read The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan, I've been wanting to read a book that had a similar vibe with the Paris catacombs in it. This book filled that need. This is a YA thriller about a group of students who go on a trip to Paris as part of their French class. Four of the girls meet a mysterious man and enter in the catacombs together. They get lost and have to fight for their survival. The author does an incredible job at creating suspense in this book. I couldn't put it down, I had to know what happened next. Also, the technique of ending the chapters off on cliffhangers was really well done. I absolutely loved the queer representation in this book. There were some minor details that bothered me, like calling spiders poisonous instead of venomous, but I'm sure those will be caught in the editing process. I loved this book so much and highly recommend it.
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Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

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adventurous fast-paced

4.0

This is my introduction to Ali Hazelwood's books. This book was such a quick read, I finished it within two days. I don't usually read romance books but this one had me blushing. This is a book about a woman named Mallory who is working hard to take care of her family as the sole breadwinner. She goes viral when she beats the best player in the world, Nolan. After this, she gets a life changing opportunity to make chess her career. This naturally makes her closer to Nolan. Hazelwood does a good job writing about chess in a way that if non-chess players, such as myself, read this book, they're still able to easily understand what is going on. I appreciated the disability and queer representation in this book. I will definitely be reading more of Hazelwood's books. This book is heavily marketed as a young adult book, however, this isn't YA, it should fall under the new adult category.
Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

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  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book is about a roofing family that lives in the small town of Mercury. Elise and Mick has three sons named Baylor, Waylen, and Shay. Marley is a high school girl that gets pregnant with Waylen's baby and decides to marry him and join the family business. The family is very unstable and constantly on the edge of collapsing. The family deals with communication, honesty, and financial issues. The pacing of the story was way too slow to be enjoyable. The vast majority of this book consists of back story. I contemplated DNF'ing this book because it was so boring. Luckily, it started to pick up around half way through. I wouldn't recommend this book. If you want a book with themes of family issues, there are better books to read besides this one that are quicker to get through.I did really like the cover, though, because not only does it show the roofing family business, but the house is so run down and beat up, which symbolizes the current weakness of the family bond.
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Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is about a family of witches who live in a town in the Appalachian mountains. The main character is trying to solve a series of connected, unsolved crimes that have affected her and others. There is a rumor going around in the town that the Moth-Winged Man aka Mothman may be responsible or a participant in some of the crimes. If you like the trope of a teenager being the one to solve a crime instead of the police, then you'll like this book. You can tell the author has done extensive research into folk magic and witchcraft because the information is very accurate. There is a romantic subplot in this book and I wish there was more time spent on it. Even though I don't like slow-burn romance, it was very well written. The ending was good and wrapped the story up very nicely. This story was interesting, dark, spooky, and had just the right amount of familial love in it.
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I Loved You in Another Life by David Arnold

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I loved the concept of this book. This is a YA book where two souls meet and fall in love with each other in every life they live. The main story takes place in modern day America between two teenagers named Evan and Shosh. Both of them have a lot of stress going on in their lives, which makes this story very emotional. It focuses on their relationship, their families, and their mental health. There are also time skips to glimpses of their different lives together. I wish that the author spent more time discussing the previous and future lives because they were so interesting and each had so much potential to them. The book started out strong but by 15% mark, I was starting to get bored. The story and pacing picked back up around the half way mark. The ending was amazing, tear-jerking, and wrapped everything up perfectly. I definitely recommend this book.

3.5 Stars.

The Gift of Sensitivity: The extraordinary power of emotional engagement in life and work by Elena Amber

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challenging informative reflective tense slow-paced

2.25

When I first picked up this book, I assumed it would be heavily relying on science to discuss human emotions, with some self help advice and a little bit of anecdotal evidence from the author. This book read more like a memoir than something scientific. The book discusses the authors life story, the trauma she's been through and how it effected her mental health and career. Chapter nine was my favorite chapter. The book primarily covers the topics of mental heath, emotional intelligence, sensitivity, and trauma. The main thing I took away from this book is that being highly sensitive isn't a bad thing, you just have to know how to cope with extreme emotions. This book isn't bad, I just wish is was based more in scientific research than anecdotal stories. If you're looking for a nonfiction book about the human mind and emotions, then you might enjoy reading this book.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

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4.0

This book is beautiful, inside and out. When Nora attempts suicide, she wakes up in a space between life and death called The Midnight Library. Through this library, she enters different books that show her different lives she could've lived. This book was much deeper than I thought. The content was heavy for such a short book. I do wish it went into the philosophical parts a little deeper. Overall, this book is fantastic and I would recommend it to everyone.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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2.0

This book is really hit or miss or most people and it was a miss for me. This book features a broken family and an unreliable narrator. I hated the writing style. The ending was confusing and there was a lot left that wasn't explained. I wish this book would've gone further into the topics of racism and generational wealth that way it could open up a discussion about them.